From start to finish here is a pictorial:
This is before the buildout process of the chicken coop. We are facing the front of the pole barn/chicken coop soon-to-be.
Same day but later in the evening the walls and chicken wire are up, along with the hen boxes.
Here is a picture of the chickens being released into their new surroundings. Did you note the lighting? I just love the fact that the pole barn already has water and electricity. Soon I will put a timer on the light to ensure they get 14 hours of light so they will continue laying the same amount of eggs as they do in the summer. Also the door is located on left-hand side if you are facing the building. The reason for this is the other chicken coop will be located off to the left of this building along with the storage of food.
Here’s a picture of the new chicken coop in the daylight.
Here my husband is finishing up the interior of the coop by adding the roosting poles. The night before most of the hens slept in the boxes while the rooster slept on top of the hen boxes. After these poles are added I don’t imagine they will be doing that again any time soon.
All the while he was building the roosting poles, Pepper is in her nest box sleeping. She has quit laying now and is going through molting so she is not her normal perky self.
She’s about done with moulting so hopefully soon she will get back to normal. But in the meantime you can see that it didn’t upset her much while he was hammering.
All in all the modification process didn’t take very long and now the chickens have adjusted to their new chicken coop. Our next project for this set of chickens is to add a run to the back of the coop area. Right now we let them out daily to free range so the run is not a major concern.
And while these chickens have a new coop to call home, our other chickens are still in the mobile stage by living in their coop on a back of a trailer.
We do allow these chickens to free range also and they have adjusted to living on a back of a trailer but as soon as the backhoe makes the trip to our new homestead they will find their coop under a shade tree and close to the other chicken coop.
Tags: chicken coop
October 14th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Looks wonderful!!! Your Hubby did a great job on that!!
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October 16th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Hello, Congratulations on your new place. Wonderful new coop. Great job.
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October 17th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Thanks for stopping in Paula and Barbara. I shared your comments with my handy dandy hubby. He is worth his weight in gold!
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February 12th, 2009 at 8:37 am
What a great coop! I was wondering what zone you are in? This is exactly what I want to do with our lean-to, but everyone keeps telling me that they need more of a traditional house to protect them from cold and predators. I’m in southern Louisiana, zone 8B, so I really think an open air coop with nesting boxes and a roost would be fine. Do you have any suggestions?
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February 12th, 2009 at 9:30 am
LoriAnn, We live in zone 9 and my chickens fare very well in both coops. They do a great job of giving them a place to lay eggs, get out of the rain, and sleep at night. I rotate free-ranging by coop so every other day the flocks are let out for more freedom.
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November 24th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Hi,
I would like to add that the chicken coop built must always be bit larger than what is actually required. As this would allow the chickens to move freely within the coop. Thus having some sort of exercise. Also availability of enough light, ventilation should also be considered as important factors.
backyard chicken coop´s last blog ..Comment by
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June 16th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Your chicken coop was built really amazing! It has very large area for chicken to move freely. Also, the hens has also large place to lay eggs with. Your really skilled in making coop.
Regie @ chicken coop plans´s last blog ..More Chicken Coop Designs
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July 27th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Your pole barn/coop looks just like what we did. Ours was a horse shelter and have made it into a coop. But our chickens hate it! They will not use the nesting boxes or the roosting pole and spend their time unsuccessfully trying to fly out or huddeling in the corner to sleep. They are not eating the feed we put in there. can someone help? Will they adjust, eventually?
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